The corporation was planning to release free news and sports apps for the iPhone next month, but have put the idea on hold after concerns about unfair market advantage.

The BBC Trust heard concerns from newspapers that the app would unfairly influence the market for news apps. Newspapers are seeking to capitalise on the iPhone in order to make up for falling sales with U.S. papers like the Wall Street Journal and New York Times having announced agreements with Apple for special subscription packages.

** Don’t forget your free iPhone3GS – just visit the link! **

The Trust will now review its plans and decide whether the apps would violate the BBC’s public service agreement.

Minor updates on the iPhone, iPhone 3G and iPhone3GS are free of cost but a new major version can now add a price to their release. This limitation was previously used by the developers to give their upgraded version a new name. The users would have to pay the full price to upgrade because the changes made for the upgrade justify to its cost. One may encounter some dialog boxes while upgrade any application and that might just be an indication that Apple is working on something big here. Since the app store has been launched, both the user and the developer have asked for such a thing. The news is not yet confirmed but it looks like Apple is going to do something big like this in the near future.

Please check back for more iPhone news.

The minor upgrade includes an improvement to the iPhone 3GS’s accuracy of the battery level indicator and fixes issues with certain third-party applications refusing to launch. The new firmware also includes five security updates.

Firmware 3.1.3 is 228MB and is distributed to your iPhone, iPhone 3G or iPhone3GS via the regular iTunes update process.

Apple is expected to deliver a more significant update to the iPhone firmware to coincide with the launch of the iPad prior to the end of March.

The iPhone 3.2 software is likely include support for apps which are designed to dynamically adjust the screen size depending on whether the iPhone or iPad are being used.

Get a Free iPhone3GS – visit our Apple iPhone home page for more details.

Rogue Amoeba’s Paul Kafasis has citing his frustration with the App Store approval process as to why he has quit development of iPhone, iPhone 3G and iPhone3GS apps. According to his company blog he is throwing in the towel on iPhone app development after experiencing a three-and-a-half month app approval period.

His growing irritation with the App Store centres on an update he wanted to release for his Airfoil Speakers Touch iPhone app. The app allows users to receive audio from any Mac or Windows-based PC and the update fixed some issues with audio sync.

Despite this Apple rejected the update because it used images of Apple products in the app. The way Airfoil Speakers Touch works is that it shows you graphically what machine and application your audio is coming from on the host computer. If you are connected to an iMac running Safari, that’s what will show up in the iPhone app.

This isn’t something that Kafasis hacked together–this functionality is freely available as part of Mac OS X for developers to use. In fact, Airfoil Speakers Touch 1.0 was still in the App Store, approved by Apple, with these images.

“The only thing Apple’s process was doing was preventing a needed bug-fix from reaching the hands of our mutual customers,” said Kafasis.

In order to get the fixes to customers, Kafasis took out all of the offending images and replaced them with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) logo. If you tap on the logo, you will be taken to a page explaining why the images have been removed.

Kafasis is asking users to consider donating to the EFF. While the organization isn’t involved with his decision to place its logo in his app, “if Apple is to change, it may take such an organization to make it happen,” he said.

As a developer, Kafasis also wants users to know the frustrations they have to go through to put out software. “We wanted to ship a simple bug fix, and it took almost four months of slow replies, delays and dithering by Apple,” said Kafasis. “All the while, our buggy, and supposedly infringing version, was still available. There’s no other word for that but ‘broken.’”

This isn’t the end of the road for Kafasis. A Mac developer for 11 years, he will re-focus his efforts back to his popular Mac-based applications.

Source: cnet

Orange signed a deal with Apple at the end of September to start offering the iPhone later this year alongside original exclusive supplier O2. After the Orange announcement, Vodafone quickly announced a deal to also supply the iPhone 3G and iPhone3GS.

Orange has not yet provided any pricing information to potential customers although reports have emerged that those who signed up to express their interest have received an email to inform them that further news would be sent in a week or so.

Apple and O2 has been slammed for the high costs associated with the iPhone during their two year exclusivity deal. Hopefully these two new suppliers with help to boost competition and lower prices for consumers.

Version 3.1.2 appears to focus on fixing bugs found in iPhone 3.1. Three main fixes are a problem where iPhones may not wake from sleep, an intermittent issue that could interfere with GSM network services (thus requiring a restart) and a bug that could cause a crash while streaming video.

The update is available on iTunes and is a huge 306.2MB on the iPhone 3GS. The update is also available for the original iPhone, the iPhone 3G and the iPod touch.

Toronto, Calgary, Montreal, Quebec City, Halifax, Vancouver, Squamish, B.C., Whistler, B.C., Ottawa, Kitchener, Ont., and Waterloo, Ont.

Due to concerns brought up by the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, faces and license plates caught by the cameras have been blurred out. A method to request image removal due to privacy reasons has been created.

This news further cuts O2′s two-year monopoly on selling the iPhone in the UK.

Vodafone already sell the iPhone through 13 of its operators worldwide, whilst Orange offers the handset in 28 regions.

Whilst no pricing plans have yet been announced, the additional competition is sure to work in consumers favour.

The UK arm of T-Mobile have said they have no plans to offer the iPhone, whilst the 3 network have not given any indications that they will offer the device.

Vodafone have stated an ‘early 2010′ launch for their iPhone service. Orange have all but confirmed a late 2009 launch for their service.

Just to confirm that this is not a rumour but official direct from Orange UK.

The addition of the iPhone on Orange increases the availability of the handset and and therefore lead to an increase in sales. o2 have had the UK exclusive since the iPhone launched. It is assumed that they will continue to sell the device.

Registration link: www.orange.co.uk/iPhone
Press Release: newsroom.orange.co.uk

Source: iphonebang

The service went live last Friday via an iTunes update and now allows users to send photos, audio and video using their iPhone. The service has been missing for US customers since the first model arrived in 2006.

Owners of older of non 3G iPhone’s will still have to use the web-based service in order to view picture messages.